Yes but my point is the way to play out the dying of self is starting from DEATH...not seeking to get to it.
If you historically observe how death plays out, let us say biological death, it is a process that takes time. People are biologically dying through a process called "
dystrophy".
Dystrophy is a process of wasting away, until the final moments leading up to death.
Within the spiritual sense of the Old Man dying, we have a process of spiritual distrophy, that is wasting away of our members that connects us to the societal life support, hence we are slowly but surely dying to the world.
3For
ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God.
4When Christ,
who is our life,
shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)
Colossians 3:3-4 dead and hid with Christ, is a process of spiritual distrophy, that is you only get there when Jesus appears and you are raised in your sinless nature (glory = Crown of Life). Colossians 3:3-4 is also supported by the second and third witness of scripture, in Hebrews 9:27-28 and 1 John 3:2.
Let us quote Colossians in full, to guage a better and much deeper understanding of how spiritual dying (distrophy), is a process that ends at biological death.
5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9Lie not one to another, seeing that
ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10And
have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: (Colossians 3:5-10)
A renewing of spiritual knowledge is a process called sanctification, that is symbolic of the maturing of grapes into good tasting fermented wine.
We have put on the new man at baptism, but the old man is still there. We are being instructed by Apostle Paul to
Put Off the old man, which highly suggests that the old man is languishing, but is still ever present, until the body of sin is finally put to rest, then we appear before Christ in sinless glory (nature).
Therefore Apostle Paul is saying "
To Mortify" members of the old man, that points to an infinite verb, which is an action in continual application that has the members of the old man being continually deprived of those adjectives mentioned, that is the "
putting them off" of those adjectives.
Therefore, the new man and the old man exist side by side, unto death, do they apart. Do you understand friend?
By death I'm not referring anything about our biological physical body which will die...but...The Old Man.
I understand friend.
Water baptism is such an acknowledgement.
It acknowledges that the new man has made an entry alongside of the old man.
The Sinner the Old Man or nature is to be considered dead, not dying but dead.
Considering the old man dead, does NOT make him go away, he is still there unto biological death. Our unction is to mortify him, by depriving him from the fuel that feeds him, which is fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Going down in the waters is a form of burial and you don't bury one still living.
In this case we are burying the old man while he is still alive and unreluctantly kicking and screaming, to want to break out into the world. We are depriving him of oxygen that allows him a door back into our lives, to hamper the developmental progression of the new man.
It is a struggle, a tug of war between the two.
9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man with his deeds; (Colossians 3:9)
When they come up out of the water it's symbolic of the new creature, the new nature man that is no longer the children of wrath by nature.
Sure, but the old man that invites the wrath of God back into an individual's life, is ever present and wants to break out, if given an opportunity to do so. We observe reality of a fallen servant, who according to Jesus falls in that category....as Jesus said......
48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’
49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.
51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites (unbelievers), where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48-51)